Category: Social media

Rantings of a social media addict who is never socially active. (Read twice to understand)

Alert : If you are a person whose day begins with “Facebook” instead of tea and toast and ends with “YouTube” rather than a long walk or daily soaps or whatever, you are warmly welcome to read this post.

Are you hysteric when it comes to social media? Are you glued to your smartphone or your laptop watching #Hudabeauty videos or stalking a friend and checking every picture from his picture library of 10000 pictures in detail? Does your mind shift to an auto pilot mode the moment you check your social media account and switch between them all day? Are you socially alert but inactive?

If your answer is a big YES (in bold with caps on) which undoubtedly is, you are my best friend. Perhaps, we can do these things together! We might also make small conversations which we usually don’t.

I’m not going to provide you a huge essay on why technology was invented, how it was invented and how we are misusing it. No, we are aware of it like a dog is aware of his master. Yet.

I’m not going to burden you by saying how you’re wasting your time and how you can make it more productive by doing other things. I won’t. Cause don’t I belong to our huge community of social maniacs?

We try. We try to talk. To take our eyes off makeup tutorials which are all same. To stop reading silly jokes which we know so well are not the least bit funny. To pay attention to what people say. To talk to guests when they come and avoid shutting ourselves up in our room with our one and only one love, our smartphone! To take our a** off the couch and do something. We fail because we actually don’t want to get up, read something offline, watch tv, play games, talk to someone, etc. etc. We try yet we fail. Our efforts, which are, as they say in Spanish, zilch, nada!

Me : She does that everyday. She’s calling me to show and ask me about that yellow designer saree from Homeshop18. My mom’s just like me.

My mind : What are you learning from these?

Me : Can’t you see? They show us such funny videos and hair tutorials. You Hush and watch.

My mind : Have you ever tried any of them ever?

Me : I most definitely will. Waiting for the perfect occasion!

My mind : You’ve already watched so many videos, you should’ve been a professional by now.

Me : This is NOT my forte. I’m gonna be an engineer!

My mind : Then why are you watching it in the first place?”

Social media is making us insecure, unhappy and bored. We creep into someone’s Instagram account, check their exclusive pics with glamorous dresses and feel sad for ourselves. It’s not just Instagram or Facebook. Every social media site makes us feel vulnerable. We believe the people who post more are happier. We are more religious and faithful to social media than to God! We are digitally active but socially, we’ve forgotten how to make a conversation, how to talk. We’re comfortable behind the blinds of what we call social media and when we meet someone personally,we feel awkward. It feels like being trapped. We are masking our true selves, our identity, our talents. The time we invest in looking someone else’s vacation pictures and leaving comments like “Awwh” and “Oooh” is the time we are wasting. We reject family dinners only to spend more time with our smartphones. We check our smartphones in the middle of a lecture, while driving, while romancing on a candlelight dinner only to know how someone’s puppy has fallen sick. FRUSTRATING!

There isn’t any need for me to tell you the toll social media is taking on us. This is simply a reality check for myself and a reminder for you. Now it all depends on how you take my words.